Tuesday 30 March 2004 20.00 EST
First published on Tuesday 30 March 2004 20.00 EST

In a cavernous film studio in east London, rehearsals for a production of The Barber of Seville are taking place. The concrete floor is strewn with bulging carrier bags and bits of props. At one end of the gloomy space, if not warmed then a little dechilled by a couple of electric heaters, a cat's cradle of scaffolding, some plywood doors and a standard lamp form a stand-in stage set.

Two young singers are perched aloft on the "balcony", declaring their love after nearly an opera's worth of romantic confusions, disguises and elegantly comic plotting. They are Sally Wilson, singing Rosina, and Darren Abrahams, who plays Almaviva. Wilson is striking, with her dark, pronounced brows almost Callas-like. Abrahams is dapper, every inch the amorous count. Beneath them, at ground level, is Owen Gilhooley, as Figaro, looking something of a card. The most obvious thing about the three is that they are very young: their ages range from mid-20s to early-30s (positively embryonic for singers, whose voices take time to mature). But everyone here is pretty youthful, from the conductor, Brad Cohen, to the director, Aletta Collins, to the stage manager and the répétiteur, who is accompanying the singers at the piano. You might mistake it for a student pro duction were it not for the fact that the operation is clearly rather slick.

They are preparing for the debut show of a brand-new company: Savoy Opera. They will occupy the pretty, art-deco Savoy Theatre in the West End of London, in effect providing the city with a third opera house. That is, if it proves to be a commercial success, for this venture will receive no state subsidy. It is impresario Raymond Gubbay's latest adventure, in partnership with Stephen Waley-Cohen, who runs the theatre. Their idea is to present accessible opera sung in English for the price of a West End show (highest ticket price £49.50, whereas at the Royal Opera the best seats for the most sought-after shows cost £170). They want to tempt in the sort of audience who might go to Holland Park Opera or Gubbay's Albert Hall extravaganzas, but who might find the aura associated with Covent Garden or the Coliseum off-putting.

It is an idea that Waley-Cohen has been chewing away at for some time. "I have been responsible for the Savoy for about seven years," he says, "and early on I realised what wonderful acoustics it has. I wouldn't pretend to be an opera buff, so I knew that if we were going to do it I needed to find someone who understood how opera works." That person was Gubbay; the pair came together when the latter brought a season of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas to the Savoy in 2000.

"We started talking about doing opera in a different way," says Waley-Cohen. "Normal opera houses use famous singers with big voices who can't perform every night. So they do opera in repertory." But doing it that way is extremely money-greedy: in rep there are usually just eight or so performances of each work, the set having to be moved, at great expense, to accommodate other productions on successive nights. Doing straightforward runs is cheaper, but it's not something that's possible if you are casting big stars, who have to conserve their voices and who can't be booked for long periods.

A prospective shape for Savoy Opera was beginning to form. Because of the small scale of the theatre, young singers with less powerful voices could be used. And of course they'd be relatively cheap. "Our rates are good," says Waley-Cohen, "but bear no relation to those for big-name singers. We are paying £450 to £1,000 per week for principals." If the singers were double cast, runs could be contemplated. And the operas would be presented accessibly: as theatre rather than by divas doing stand-and-deliver. More West End than Covent Garden, more Classic FM than Radio 3.

The Royal Opera and ENO have remained determinedly chipper about the news of Savoy's appearance on the scene. "Raymond has a great track record in finding audiences for the concerts and operas he has promoted so far, and we hope he's equally successful in creating new audiences for the Savoy Opera," says Elaine Padmore, head of opera at Covent Garden. The Savoy's ethos of accessible opera sung in English is a little closer to ENO's raison d'etre, and it will be interesting to see how that company reacts if Savoy is a success.

At the time of these first conversations, Steven Pimlott, a director who has done everything from Bombay Dreams to a famous RSC production of Richard II with Sam West, with heaps of opera en route, happened to be acting in HMS Pinafore at the Savoy. "Stephen and Raymond took me out to dinner to talk about the project," he says. "The idea appealed: my greatest operatic love is Mozart, but I'm always frustrated by seeing it in houses so much larger than the works were written for." He decided that an ideal music director would be David Parry (who, ironically enough, is being tipped for the music directorship of ENO).

"I thought it was an interesting artistic idea," says Parry. "A smaller-scale opera house is something that London has been lacking. Everyone in the audience will be able to see and hear properly. The corollary was that everything would be sung in English. I also felt it would be interesting to find ways of breaking down barriers of accessibility - without compromising standards."

Details were hammered out. "The original idea was to do runs of single operas, but we felt it would be better to run them in pairs," says Parry. "We chose a mainstream programme," says Pimlott, "but David was clear that we shouldn't reduce scorings for any opera to squash them into the Savoy. That restricted us in the first instance to Mozart, Rossini, small-scale Verdi, French opéra comique." The pairings make a certain sense: The Barber of Seville is running with The Marriage of Figaro; later on, La Belle Hélène runs with La Traviata ("both about belle epoque slappers", as Parry puts it). Slated for the first year are a total of seven works, ending with The Magic Flute, which Pimlott will direct and Parry conduct.

The two also decided to bring in, as the third member of the artistic team, Sarah Playfair: "I'm the person who helps put into reality what the creatives dream up," she says.

Just as soon as the artistic triumvirate was set - August 2003 - they had to race into action: there was less than a year to get the first productions on. "Of course they wanted it yesterday," says Parry. Directors were identified. "We wantedpeople who would do opera as theatre, with that level of detail and rapport," according to Pimlott, "but they come from a variety of disciplines, from Aletta Collins, who is primarily known as a choreographer, to Christopher Alden who is hugely experienced as an opera director". The same sort of principles went for the choice of conductors. According to Parry: "Not divas. People who would be interested in the totality, who are theatrically literate." An offshoot of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - to be known as the Royal Philharmonic Opera Orchestra - was chosen as the resident ensemble.

Singers' auditions began in October. "We contacted agents, teachers, colleges, choruses," says Playfair. "And we heard about 1,300 singers. We were looking for people who would be dramatically credible, partly because we were aiming for an audience who wouldn't be used to operatic conventions. So no fat people singing consumptive heroines."

By December recalls were taking place, and as the new year came, "We fine-tuned the rehearsal schedule, and announced the performance schedule. In February, contracts were sent out to singers ... It's been pretty near the wire," says Playfair.

Gradually the bones of a company were set up. "A head of music and a head of production were appointed, and company managers and stage managers," says Parry. "The usual malarkey but incredibly lean."

And what of the productions, as they pan out in rehearsal? "Just because it's a commercial undertaking doesn't mean that we are doing potboilers served up in a palatable fashion," says Pimlott. "I wasn't prepared to dictate to the directors how they should work. Though we did all discuss whether it would be black plastic and barbed wire or, at the other end of the spectrum, all frills and flams. The brief is that the works should be dramatic, immediate, fresh."

Breaking from rehearsals, Aletta Collins says. "There wasn't an idea that we were doing 'West End opera' or anything - not in a grand way. I'm just trying to do the piece that it is, approaching it as a piece of theatre." Darren Abrahams is optimistic that the project will be a success. "The challenge will be to persuade people that they want to come. Once they do word will spread."

Is he right? "There are plenty of people who listen to music and go to West End shows but never get past the door of an opera house," says Pimlott. "In the case of Covent Garden the reason is obvious - it's bloody expensive - and hopefully our prices are sensible."

"We're not of course in a position to keep it going indefinitely," says Gubbay. "If we got 60%-ish box office we'd be feeling that it was doing sort of OK."

Pimlott, Parry and Playfair are all adamant that they are not competing with English National Opera and the Royal Opera. "I don't understand the notion of a finite audience," says Pimlott. One thing is certain: Savoy Opera will indelibly affect the ecology of operatic life in London - whether it flourishes or flops. And who knows which way it will go? As Gubbay says: "You lay out your wares and hope people will come."

· The Barber of Seville previews from April 7 and The Marriage of Figaro previews from April 8 at the Savoy Theatre, London WC2. Box office: 0870 166 7372.